A Day To Remember, The Ghost Inside, I Killed The Prom Queen @ The Roundhouse, Sydney (25/02/2014)
I Killed The Prom Queen opened the night up, and it was clear by the number of fans that were already filling the Roundhouse floor that Sydney hasn’t seen enough of them just yet. Their set started with vocalist Jamie Hope balanced on top of the crowd barrier screaming the opening lines of Beginning of the End directly into the faces of the fans pushing forward meet him. As soon as he joined the band back on stage and the drums and full strength of the guitars kicked in, the crowd turned into a swarming mosh complete with several circle pits and enough crowd surfers to keep the security constantly busy.
Their set continued with the intensity of the crowd growing with each song, and matched point for point by each member of the band. Playing through their biggest songs from across their discography, there was something in the set for each fan. With the loudest screaming and the largest circle pits, the favourites of the set were the older songs Sharks In Your Mouth and the final song of the night Say Goodbye. However, even the newest songs of the night were being screamed along to word for word by almost every fan watching the set.
With the venue pushing close to maximum capacity, The Ghost Inside charged out on stage and riled the crowd up into a frenzy of moshing and jumping during their opening song Engine 45. The band’s set ran through some of their biggest songs from their three albums, and kept the crowd moshing and screaming along through almost every song. Even as one of the oldest songs of the night, Faith Or Forgiveness had everyone in the crowd off their feet and screaming along to every word.
Vocalist Jonathan Vigil took time between songs to talk to their fans about maintaining a sense of positivity despite what life might throw at you, before jumping into one of the band’s favourite songs that tells of how much music can mean to someone, Between The Lines. Following up, This Is What I Know About Sacrifice had the crowd screaming along to every word louder than for any other song, and was the definite fan favourite of the night. In fact, with the crowd taking a break from moshing to stand with their fists raised and punching along to every beat it was a pretty amazing sight to watch.
Taking to the stage with the Roundhouse packed to the rafters with cheering and shouting fans, A Day To Remember blasted into their set of nothing but fan favourites. The first song of the night, All I Want, started off the set at full energy with crowd breaking off into multiple circle pits and a wall of jumping fans by the end of the second note. From there the energy barely dipped, with Homesick, 2nd Sucks off their earlier albums and Right Back At It Again, The Document Speaks For Itself and City Of Ocala from their latest album keeping the fans off their feet and singing along.
The band slowed the night down for a moment in the middle of their set with an incredible acoustic break. For the first time in their seven tours of Australia, they played You Had Me At Hello accompanied by a crowd of waving cigarette lighters and phone screens. For one of the first times being played lived in Australia it was amazing to see how much the band and the crowd loved every second of it. If It Means A Lot To You continued the acoustic break, with vocalist Jeremy McKinnon joining in on guitar as well.
With the energy picking up after the acoustic songs, McKinnon got himself ready for his classic hamster ball run around on the hands of the crowd, while the band kicked into It’s Complicated. For those of you who haven’t seen A Day To Remember, or don’t know much about them, the band is in possession of a human sized, blow up hamster ball/zorb which they use during most of their shows to give McKinnon a chance to run around over the heads of the audience! It’s a big highlight of their live shows for everyone involved, especially McKinnon by the looks of his smile once he’s reached the stage again.
With the end of the night looming, and the air in the venue quickly being replaced by sweat and the floor of the roundhouse looking more like a swarming mass of moshing, McKinnon’s voice screaming, “you won’t make it out alive” seemed to be a pretty accurate description of the night. That being said, with the following songs Life Lessons Learned The Hard Way, Sometimes You’re The Hammer, Sometimes You’re The Nail and Have Faith In Me, it would have been an awesome last concert if it had to be one.
Returning to the stage during chants of ‘one more song’ A Day To Remember didn’t disappoint their fans and jumped straight into their encore set starting off with All Signs Point To Lauderdale. Complete with toilet paper rolls being thrown around the stage and the crowd and the remnants of toilet paper hanging from the lights and speaker stacks, it was clear that even so close to the end of the night there was still life in this party. Violence (Enough Is Enough) was up next and didn’t see even the slightest dip in the energy of the crowd despite the toilet paper rolls running out. The very last song of the night, Downfall Of Us All had the band and the crowd drawing on every last ounce of energy from the very first “duh duh duh duh duh-duh” to the last “downfall of us all” in a finale of crowd surfing, screaming, moshing and jumping worthy of such a absolutely fantastic night.
For those who have the chance to catch A Day To Remember, or the Ghost Inside and I Killed The Prom Queen, at their future Soundwave and Sidewave dates, do it! Don’t miss out on seeing some of the best hardcore bands touring through Australia this year.
Bethany Williams
Their set continued with the intensity of the crowd growing with each song, and matched point for point by each member of the band. Playing through their biggest songs from across their discography, there was something in the set for each fan. With the loudest screaming and the largest circle pits, the favourites of the set were the older songs Sharks In Your Mouth and the final song of the night Say Goodbye. However, even the newest songs of the night were being screamed along to word for word by almost every fan watching the set.
With the venue pushing close to maximum capacity, The Ghost Inside charged out on stage and riled the crowd up into a frenzy of moshing and jumping during their opening song Engine 45. The band’s set ran through some of their biggest songs from their three albums, and kept the crowd moshing and screaming along through almost every song. Even as one of the oldest songs of the night, Faith Or Forgiveness had everyone in the crowd off their feet and screaming along to every word.
Vocalist Jonathan Vigil took time between songs to talk to their fans about maintaining a sense of positivity despite what life might throw at you, before jumping into one of the band’s favourite songs that tells of how much music can mean to someone, Between The Lines. Following up, This Is What I Know About Sacrifice had the crowd screaming along to every word louder than for any other song, and was the definite fan favourite of the night. In fact, with the crowd taking a break from moshing to stand with their fists raised and punching along to every beat it was a pretty amazing sight to watch.
Taking to the stage with the Roundhouse packed to the rafters with cheering and shouting fans, A Day To Remember blasted into their set of nothing but fan favourites. The first song of the night, All I Want, started off the set at full energy with crowd breaking off into multiple circle pits and a wall of jumping fans by the end of the second note. From there the energy barely dipped, with Homesick, 2nd Sucks off their earlier albums and Right Back At It Again, The Document Speaks For Itself and City Of Ocala from their latest album keeping the fans off their feet and singing along.
The band slowed the night down for a moment in the middle of their set with an incredible acoustic break. For the first time in their seven tours of Australia, they played You Had Me At Hello accompanied by a crowd of waving cigarette lighters and phone screens. For one of the first times being played lived in Australia it was amazing to see how much the band and the crowd loved every second of it. If It Means A Lot To You continued the acoustic break, with vocalist Jeremy McKinnon joining in on guitar as well.
With the energy picking up after the acoustic songs, McKinnon got himself ready for his classic hamster ball run around on the hands of the crowd, while the band kicked into It’s Complicated. For those of you who haven’t seen A Day To Remember, or don’t know much about them, the band is in possession of a human sized, blow up hamster ball/zorb which they use during most of their shows to give McKinnon a chance to run around over the heads of the audience! It’s a big highlight of their live shows for everyone involved, especially McKinnon by the looks of his smile once he’s reached the stage again.
With the end of the night looming, and the air in the venue quickly being replaced by sweat and the floor of the roundhouse looking more like a swarming mass of moshing, McKinnon’s voice screaming, “you won’t make it out alive” seemed to be a pretty accurate description of the night. That being said, with the following songs Life Lessons Learned The Hard Way, Sometimes You’re The Hammer, Sometimes You’re The Nail and Have Faith In Me, it would have been an awesome last concert if it had to be one.
Returning to the stage during chants of ‘one more song’ A Day To Remember didn’t disappoint their fans and jumped straight into their encore set starting off with All Signs Point To Lauderdale. Complete with toilet paper rolls being thrown around the stage and the crowd and the remnants of toilet paper hanging from the lights and speaker stacks, it was clear that even so close to the end of the night there was still life in this party. Violence (Enough Is Enough) was up next and didn’t see even the slightest dip in the energy of the crowd despite the toilet paper rolls running out. The very last song of the night, Downfall Of Us All had the band and the crowd drawing on every last ounce of energy from the very first “duh duh duh duh duh-duh” to the last “downfall of us all” in a finale of crowd surfing, screaming, moshing and jumping worthy of such a absolutely fantastic night.
For those who have the chance to catch A Day To Remember, or the Ghost Inside and I Killed The Prom Queen, at their future Soundwave and Sidewave dates, do it! Don’t miss out on seeing some of the best hardcore bands touring through Australia this year.
Bethany Williams